A few notes about fly fishing in and around Yellowstone National Park.

Thursday, May 10, 2007

And The Beat Goes On

CUTTHROAT ON LOSING END OF BATTLEA Sad Day For Yellowstone

.. Well folks if you thought that fishing on the Yellowstone River was poor last year: just read this -->>CUTTTHROAT LOSING OUT TO LAKE TROUT IN YELLOWSTONE... This is just another report in the ongoing battle against the Lake Trout. And, it looks like we're losing this one... The money quote from this story is astoundingly brutal:

"Non-native lake trout patrolling Yellowstone Lake are eating so deeply into the population that biologists last year found just 471 cutthroats at a spot where there were more than 70,000 in the 1970s.The downward spiral has been particularly noticeable at that spot - Clear Creek on the eastern edge of Yellowstone Lake - over the last several years. After biologists counted 6,613 cutthroats in 2002, the number dropped to 3,432 in 2003, 1,438 in 2004, 917 in 2005 and 471 last spring, according to numbers released Wednesday.They are the lowest numbers since record keeping began in 1945."

Photo by Jess Lee->

.. As tragic as this is for fisher folks, it is more so for the Eagles, Grizzles, Otters, Ospreys, and other Yellowstone residents that depend on the fish for their livelihood. This is a crises more eminent than global warming... The same thing is about to happen in Slough Creek. Rainbow Trout are hybridizing with the Cutts of that famous stream... Yellowstone fishing regulations require that Rainbow Trout be killed in Slough Creek. Yellowstone fishing regulations require that Lake Trout be killed in Yellowstone Lake. As long as the worship of a catch and release ethic continues the decline of the Yellowstone Cutthroat will continue... We are saddened.